Adventus
by Winnow
Summary: Chapter 1: Just another normal day for the Lyoko gang. Too bad for them that normal never meant easy.
1. Prelude to Tragedy

Prelude to Tragedy

* * *

**It was dark**. Just an empty room that was seemingly devoid of any kind of motion and life. Silently time ticked by, yet nothing in the room seemed to change—that is—until a single ray of light came from above and illuminated a man. The man just sat there, eyes closed, waiting for something. He was well dressed and he gave off a sense that he was in possession of a large sum of money. His long brown hair dangled off of his shoulders. The sharp red suit he wore was made of only the finest materials available. It was extravagant, even going as far to have a handkerchief folded up in his jacket's outer pocket. His body posture was perfect, back straight and pressed up against the back of his chair. His legs were crossed; because of this his right foot dangled in the air. His shoes were black; Italian made, custom most likely.

He must have decided that he had waited long enough, and he slowly opened his deep chocolate brown orbs. He made no other moves. He continued to sit straight in his chair, his hands in his lap. Finally the rest of the room became lit, revealing many pieces of art by only the greatest of artist in a large cylindrical tower, a little red light by every masterpiece in the room. A smirk formed on the man's lips.

It was time.

"Welcome gentlemen," the man's deep voice rang out throughout the large room. "Shall we begin?"

"Yes," a voice answered from the direction of a painting that looked like it was by Picasso. The little red light by the painting lit up, revealing that that was indeed the speaker.

"What shall we discuss this time?" the man in the chair spoke again.

"It is time that we should review our past actions," a voice offered.

"I second that."

"As do I."

The man in the chair gave no hint that he was annoyed with the other members' plan. With little to know emotion he responded, "Very well gentlemen. We shall do a reassessment."

"1962. Some of our families joined together for the purpose we are still striving for today. The cold war between the United States and Russia created many technologies and a new breed of scientists emerged. 1962 was also the year the APARNET was developed and Waldo Schaeffer made himself known."

"Yes, yes," a voice complained. "We have heard this before. I move that we condense this tale. If anyone wants to know the details they should access the network."

"I agree."

"Yes, we are all busy people; let's stay on the topic at hand."

Slowly, but surely everyone mumbled their consent.

"As you wish," the man in the chair sighed, letting a little emotion slip through his barrier. Could it perhaps have been a sign? Or was it just simple annoyance? Regardless he quickly edited his monologue, pertaining to the one subject that plagued them. "Waldo Schaeffer was approached by us in 1973 after he created the first graphical user interface, or GUI, and was persuaded to our cause."

"2 years later while working for us he meets his future assistant, Antea Hopper. The two form an intimate relationship and they go steady for 2 years. Waldo then proposes in January of 1977. They marry six months later. At the time this was a favorable moment for us. Waldo and Antea Schaeffer were brilliant. We had hoped that any children they had would become committed to our cause."

"Waldo and Antea then moved to Alaska where the isolated terrain would give them the privacy they needed to work. In 1979 Antea became pregnant with their only child. April 19, 1980, Aelita Schaeffer was born. She was reported to look like her mother, even having the same unusual pink hair color."

"1984, our luck turns sour. Waldo Schaeffer starts asking questions more frequently and becoming more aggressive. He hacks into our network and learns of our plan. Quickly, we mobilize trying to stop him before he escapes. The mission ultimately failed, but not without a reward. Antea Schaeffer was captured, but Waldo and his daughter escaped. Waldo then proved to be more difficult to track than anticipated. He never stayed at any one place for longer than a couple of months."

"His trail went cold from 1986 to 1994. In that time he spent many hours working in secret in Paris suburb as a teacher at a local academy. Somewhere in that town he developed a powerful super computer and continued the research that we had assigned him. He stole most of our information on Project Carthage and continued working on the eXtensible Abrogative Neural Algorithm, XANA for short. It seems that Waldo changed XANA's purpose, but the artificial intelligence either didn't take to kindly to that or it was infected by a primal virus."

"We were finally able to track Waldo down at the academy. He had changed his name to Franz Hopper and developed a new technology that seemed to allow time to flow backwards. It was the small discrepancies in space time around the city that the machine made which allowed us to track down Franz's general area. Our scientist predicted from the disruption made that Franz used the loop over 2000 times to repeat the same day."

"Our field agents were lucky enough to track him down one day, but he escaped once again. We no longer have any leads. The Time Loop technology was never found. The purpose for it is unknown. XANA's code has since been found scattered across globe. Retrieval has also been difficult. Many parts have since been erased, due to crashes of some of the personal computers infected and security around some of the supercomputers and mainframes. There has been no news of Aelita and Antea has been isolated for 25 years."

The room was silent for a moment. The man didn't even seem winded. His voice had never faltered, a mistake never made. He was absolutely perfect. Perfection was a standard that he had become accustomed to. It seemed expected and normal. So normal that the many members of the organization didn't notice or no longer cared.

"Is that all?" one asked haughtily.

"That is all I know for I am merely an observer," the man replied. A little sarcasm was weaved in his tone, but no one seemed to notice.

"Very well then, this meeting is adjourned I think."

"Yes of course, a pleasure as always gentlemen."

The members continued to excuse themselves, offering pleasantries to the others as they left whatever terminal they used to communicate. Finally they were all gone and the man in the chair moved from his seated position, breaking his statue like stance. He made his way to the door, but by the time he approached a butler or servant of some kind had opened the door for him.

He walked down the hall of the complex. He seemed to know where he was going. His eyes were half-closed. He was moving efficiently, every step precise, a movement not wasted. He almost reached the end of the corridor until he was approached by another man.

He was wearing a black suit. His head shaved bald and pair dark sunglasses covered his eyes. An earpiece was in his right ear, probably connected to some hidden radio. He was carrying a manila file folder in his right hand and his actions seemed rushed, like he was attending to an important manner.

"Sir."

"Yes what is it?"

"We searched the suburb where Waldo Schaeffer was last seen as you requested."

"And?" the man asked, there was obviously a reason for this, if nothing turned up the matter could've waited another day.

"Something turned up."

The man gave up his folder as he continued. "There was no sign of the supercomputer or Waldo Schaeffer as expected, but we did find a girl with pink hair. She is 10 or so years too young, but pink hair isn't that common and been only found on one other person besides, Ant—"

"Antea Schaeffer," the man finished for his employee.

"Yes sir, what do you want us to do?"

The man paused for a bit as he took some time to think. "Submit a full report and then monitor the girl. Waldo was playing with time. We don't know the full extent of what he could've done."

"Shall I alert the other members?" the man asked.

"No, those fools will be too rash in their decision. Remember what I have said time and time before, we are merely observers to the changing world. This matter can wait. We need to make sure we have to right person before I have to clean up another mess for those ignorant people."

"Yes sir."

The man took his leave, quickly walking away to follow his orders. The man flipped his hair before continuing to his destination. The atmosphere changed, to almost like a brooding state. This was different though, instead of anger it was an evil-like pleasure. A smirk formed on the man's lips as single thought ran through his mind.

"So it begins."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I would just like to thank anyone whom has taken the time to read this prologue. This is a little idea I developed a couple of days ago. I was reading a story when some ideas started coming together. On that note I would like to than **optimus304** for allowing me to use some of the concepts of **New Dawn**. Optimus's story is very good so I would go check it out if you haven't, after you leave a review (I'm just saying).

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Code Lyoko. This story is was also written to be non-profit. The elements of New Dawn that I will use belong optimus304, who I have asked permission for the use of.

I would also like to inform the readers who are still reading this some general information about the story's current status. As of 1:00 am 09/07/09 this story consists of a Prelude and a mess of jumbled ideas. If all goes well and couple of reviews are dropped, the process of me designing an outline will be started. At this crucial time there is also room for anyone who would like to beta the story and help contribute, maybe a co-authorship if you're daring enough. Also anyone else, please leave ideas if you want. I know some people have opinions of what they would like to see if a season 5 of Code Lyoko existed and I would love to hear them and implement them into the story if I could. My main goal here is not only to write for the pleasure of it, but to also try and provide an enjoyable reading experience.

Any grammar mistakes, suggestions, constructive criticism? Let me know in a review.

**P.S. **Also I know this prelude isn't as good as it should be, probably a little boring, but I wanted to set the ground work, and if this story starts moving along, I'll try to rewrite it.

**P.P.S. **Did anyone like the name I gave XANA? I think it works pretty well.


	2. Tragedy Strikes

Tragedy Strikes

* * *

"**C'mon Einstein, **don't be so nervous. It's only a date." Odd teased Jeremy. Odd's grin was slowly taking over his face as Jeremy rocked nervously back and forth in front of his dorm's mirror. Jeremy was gripping the front of his collar, pulling it forward trying to let out the nervous heat forming. Jeremy could tell he was about to start sweating bullets, his palms were becoming slick and he slowly started gripping them tighter.

"Odd, give him a break," Ulrich admonished from his casual position on Jeremy's bed. A small smile was barely noticeable. He couldn't help but be amused by the situation, if only a little bit. "He's nervous enough without you teasing him. I don't know why, there's nothing to worry about."

Odd turned and stared Ulrich down. Ulrich noticing Odd returned the gaze. They both shuffled their positions to face the other more squarely. Odd even bent over a little bit to level the playing field. Their eyes narrowed on each other, neither having the sensibility to back down. They just continued to size each other. Both of them not moving, that is, until Odd pointed to Jeremy over his shoulder without breaking his eye contact, "This should've happened years ago, so what if I give him a hard time?"

Ulrich continued to return back the hard stare as Jeremy watched the sparks fly between his friends. "Odd you could at least be a little bit more sensible. When's the last time you've been on a real date?" Ulrich countered. Odd visibly flinched a little at that, but recovered.

_'So that's how he wants to play it,'_ Odd thought as he started readying his comeback.

"So how 'bout you and Yumi?" Odd asked nonchalantly, but he was really grinning on the inside. "It must be tough, her and William are off to college this year. Long distance relationships can be tough, especially with Yumi being around some of the older college guys."

Jeremy momentarily forgot about his fear about his date later, he was more focused on his two friends about to go at it in his room. The last time this happed, they almost broke his computer and Jim wasn't too happy about the wall almost being destroyed. The janitor was cross with them ever since.

"Uh…guys?" Jeremy tried to interrupt, but his warning went of deaf ears.

"What about you Odd, you have yourself quite a reputation, can you even get a date? At least if Yumi leaves me I can still get someone here."

"What are you talking about? I still have Sam."

"When's the last time you talked to her?"

"Yesterday!"

"When'd you have time for that?"

"GUYS!" Jeremy yelled as loud as he could, breaking the two out of their trance. "It's almost 5:30."

Ulrich and Odd just stared at Jeremy. They didn't know he could get that loud. Jeremy subconsciously pushed his glasses up higher on his face as the two just continued to stare at him like they couldn't believe he actually existed.

"What?" Jeremy finally asked, a little apprehension in his voice.

Ulrich was the first to be broken out of his stupor. He shook his head and replied saying that nothing was wrong. He quickly slid off the bed and put his hand on Jeremy's shoulder and forced to look in the mirror once again.

"You're going to be fine man, you're looking pretty good and besides what could possibly go wrong? It's not like X.A.N.A. still exists or like someone is trying to get to the super computer, and honestly—man—I don't think that Aelita would care what you look like. She likes you for you," Ulrich stated as Jeremy went over what he was wearing one more time in the mirror.

Jeremy was wearing a light blue button up shirt, with a dark blue collar and dark blue vertical stripes. After much convincing by Ulrich and Odd, Jeremy conceded to put on a nice pair of Jeans instead of his usual kakis. He also had a white undershirt, which was plainly visible because he left the top couple of buttons undone. His shoes were just standard blue sneakers that he always wore.

"You think she'll like this?" Jeremy asked after he was done examining himself.

Odd was now up against the wall sitting on top of Jeremy's bed with his arms behind his head also had to throw in his two cents, "Yeah Jeremy, vertical stripes, very thinning, not that you needed it though." He laughed at his own joke as Ulrich just rolled his eyes.

"Look who's talking, you're still pretty scrawny," Ulrich snickered.

"Hey!" an offended Odd yelled, "I'm not scrawny, just svelte, besides I've grown since we first met."

It was true, they had all grown since they defeated X.A.N.A. a couple of years ago. Ulrich was still the tallest and the most built physically, but Odd was only a couple inches shorter than him. Jeremy was a little bit taller than Odd, but had the least muscle mass. That was fine for him though, he wasn't planning on doing much heavy lifting when he was older anyways.

"Fine, fine, sorry. You have gotten a little taller since we first met," Ulrich admitted. "I don't understand why you're not taller. You've gotten enough extra servings from Rosa to last another student from start to finish."

Jeremy and Ulrich shared a quick laugh, while Odd just brooded a little up against the wall. Ulrich took out his cell phone to glance at the time, before he quickly returned it to the pocket from which it came.

"Well look at the time, we'll leave you alone now Jeremy. C'mon Odd I'm going to murder you in Foosball."

Odd grinned and rubbed his nose, "Are you sure I think the last time I claimed the sweet stench of victory, but I'll take you up on your offer." With that said he pushed himself off of Jeremy's bed and went to follow Ulrich out the room. Before he left though he turned around in the doorway and sent Jeremy a grin, "Well Einstein, you and Princess have a good time now."

Jeremy just shook his head before checking that he had everything he needed, mainly money and his cell phone. He quickly turned out his lights and shut the door on his way out. It was time and it's rude to keep a lady waiting.

* * *

Aelita had been waiting down at the bottom of the stairs for a couple of minutes now. It never hurt to be early. She let out an exasperated sigh. She had been expecting this night for a while. Actually, she'd been waiting ever since she had been devirtualized back to Earth, but she couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that Jeremy had finally gotten the courage to ask her out. Now that it was actually here, she just couldn't shake her nervousness. The jitters that she felt just seemed to be intensifying as time rolled on. She kept glancing at her phone to check the time, putting it in her pocket again only to take it back out only seconds later.

Her phone, she smiled once she realized it. '_Jeremy got me this phone_,' she thought to herself, _'I have a lot of things because of him, everyone else helped, but Jeremy was probably the most selfless. I should really thank him tonight'_

She was mused out of her thoughts by a hand waving in her face. Aelita blushed being caught thinking so deeply. She turned her head away so she could stifle away the blood flow. After her surprise finally waned she turned to see that the owner of the hand was none other that Sissi Delmas.

"Uh, Hey Sissi." Aelita said, as she scratched the back of her neck nervously. Sissi really didn't reply, she just let out a muffled grunt as she put some more distance between Aelita and herself.

"Who are you waiting for?" Sissi finally asked trying not to sound too intrusive. She didn't let Aelita answer as she went and leaned up against the stair railing. "Let me guess," she mused, and rubbed her chin in mock though, "Jeremy, am I right?"

Aelita just nodded.

"Well it's about damn time," Sissi said to no one in particular.

"So?" Aelita asked meekly after a couple seconds of silence. "Did you want anything?"

Sissi just stared at the wall a little bit before answering Aelita's question, "Hmm…not really."

Another silence formed.

"You said, 'about damn time.' I'm guessing you knew we liked each other?" Aelita finally asked.

"Yeah, just about me and the whole school," she answered. "Even though I've called you Mrs. Einstein for the last few years, I can't believe you guys danced around the issue for so long. Even an idiot like Odd could tell you liked each other."

Aelita blushed a little bit, "I guess you're right."

"Well," Sissi said as she pushed herself off the railing. "I'm going to the Rec. Room. It's about time some idiots start fighting over the foosball table."

She started pushing one of the double doors open before adding a final note, "Also, Aelita—you look good." With that she slipped out of the doors leaving Aelita alone once again, at the bottom of the stairwell.

Aelita didn't know what to make of what just happened. Maybe it was her nervousness for her upcoming date, but she couldn't remember a time where anything involving Sissi had been so tense. Even when she first met Sissi, she was about as rude and obnoxious as you could get, the moments where they weren't teasing each other never got as tense as the moment before. Maybe Sissi was giving some sort of silent approval or maybe there was some other ulterior motive.

Aelita just shrugged it off though. Sissi would be back to normal tomorrow. Well, as normal as the self proclaimed queen of the school could get. Sure she had changed in the last few years. She had become nicer and less possessive over Ulrich. Maybe Ulrich and Yumi finally getting together had been like a slap in the face bringing her out of her teenage delusions.

Aelita decided maybe Sissi was just trying to be supportive. If anything Aelita could call Sissi a friend and that the past awkward moment was suppose to be encouraging, but neither could find the right words and that caused the whole thing to become one tense moment.

Aelita was broken out of her thoughts as she heard a couple of steps coming from above. The tapping of feet was accompanied by a couple voices as well.

"I'm telling you that you aren't going to win just accept it."

"And I'm telling, you that just because you're good at real soccer doesn't mean that you're better than me."

"Fine Odd, we'll do it this way, best two out of three. Winner takes all."

"Deal!" Odd slapped Ulrich's hand as they rounded the final turn before descending to the ground floor. The two looked down to see Aelita standing at the bottom of the stairs obviously waiting for Jeremy. "Hey there, Princess!" Odd yelled a little bit too loudly for everyone's taste.

"Hey Odd, Ulrich, what are you guys up to?" Aelita asked as they continued down the stairs.

Odd jumped the last few stairs and pointed to Ulrich, "I was about to prove to Ulrich who's better at foosball."

Ulrich just rolled his eyes as Aelita giggled at their antics. "What's so funny Aelita?" Ulrich asked when he noticed her giggling into her hand.

"Nothing," Aelita dismissed, albeit pretty poorly. "Well I hope you guys wait your turn, it's been pretty crowded lately."

"No way!" Odd exclaimed. "We're settling this as soon as possible. Right, Ulrich?"

Ulrich acquiesced, "Whatever you say, Odd." Ulrich turned to face Aelita as Odd was already trying to usher him out the door. "Jeremy will be down soon. Have a nice time."

"Thanks Ulrich." Aelita replied as Ulrich was being pulled out the door by his arm.

"See you later Princess!" Odd yelled before the door closed. They were on their way to make Sissi's prediction true.

Another set of foot prints filled room once again. Aelita had a feeling she knew who it was this time. She waited hearing the foot steps grow louder and louder, till finally Jeremy came around the corner. Aelita smiled at him when there eyes made eye contact. Both of them felt there hearts flutter a little and blushes formed on their cheeks.

As Jeremy got closer he couldn't help but lose his breath. She was gorgeous to him. Aelita was wearing a light pink sweater with a darker shaded skirt. Her face had only light make-up on it, just to give her face a little glow. She also had a little red hand-bag over her shoulder just to keep smaller things in.

Jeremy stammered out, "Y-you l-look really beautiful to-tonight Aelita."

"You're not so bad yourself," she replied as she gave him a wink.

Jeremy felt himself blush again and tried to quickly swallow it. "Well Aelita, you want to get going?"

She smiled at him and grabbed on to his arm and started to tug him along. The rash action forced Jeremy to swallow another blush.

"So where are we going," she asked after getting Jeremy out the door.

"Well where we're going is a secret for now."

"I should've figured it was a surprise," she replied and let go of his arm so Jeremy could lead. They continued to hold hands as they left Kadic's campus and into the city. Everything was peaceful tonight, nothing could go wrong.

"It's going to be a nice night tonight." Aelita remarked as the sun started making its decent, bathing everything in a light orange.

"Yeah, it's going to be perfect." Jeremy added.

The two continued to walk further into town, people were heading home. A couple of people were picking up ingredients from a little bakery. The smell of fresh bread made the couple's mouths water. The two were skipping a meal from Kadic's cafeteria for this date and they were getting hungry.

Jeremy led Aelita to a little corner café. Jeremy of course being a perfect gentleman pulled out Aelita's chair for her before sitting down himself. Aelita looked around the little café and noticed that it wasn't that crowded. There was a man sitting reading a newspaper drinking a cup of coffee. There was also another couple like Jeremy and herself, except that maybe they were a little older. The other couple were laughing quitetly to each other's jokes and they seemed to be having a good time.

"Do you like it?" Jeremy asked, as he noticed Aelita was looking around the café.

"Yes Jeremy," she answered, "it's very nice, it's really calm."

"Yeah, it is."

Just as Jeremy finished a waiter came up to the two of them. He had his pad ready to take their order. "Bonjour Mademoiselle et Monsieur, vous désirez?" He said, asking what they would like.

Aelita decided to order water to drink and get a menu so she could see what she would want. The waiter then turned his attention to Jeremy. "Et pour vous, monsieur?"

"I would like some water as well please." Jeremy replied as the waiter took note for two waters. Since Jeremy had already been here he went ahead and ordered his meal. The entrée was nothing more than a little steak with a side of fries, but ever since Jeremy could smell the aroma from the café he knew he wanted one. He then gave the waiter a tip.

The waiter politely thanked Jeremy and excused himself to the kitchen taking Jeremy's menu with him. Jeremy watched as Aelita continued to read her menu. She would find something then shake her head as if dismissing the idea. "You know that you can get whatever you want, right?" Jeremy asked.

She gasped, "Jeremy I couldn't, I don't want to tax you too much."

Jeremy dismissed her though, "Go ahead and get what you would like. It's no big deal, really."

"Alright Jeremy," she conceded. She went back to reading her menu. She glanced over the pages once again until she found what she wanted. Good timing too, because their waiter returned with their water. He set the two glasses down before taking a pitcher and filling them. He then left the pitcher on the table and turned his attention to Aelita.

"Are you ready to order mademoiselle?"

"Oui monsieur, I would like le soup du jour please."

"Very good," he replied. "I'll be back as soon as everything is ready."

The waiter once again disappeared into the kitchen, before tending to the needs of other customers. Two other men came into the café at that time. They were both wearing suits, and seemed to be moving carefully and purposely. They sat at a table across the restaurant away from everyone else, they preferred to leave their sunglasses on as where they were sitting was still pretty basked in sunlight. The sun was probably keeping the other customers from the area where then men sat. That was fine with the two men, they didn't care if no one noticced them.

The waiter came up to take their orders. They only ordered coffee and kept to themselves, speaking in slightly hushed tones unnoticed to everyone else.

Jeremy and Aelita were enjoying themselves. Even though they were slightly nervous beforehand, the two felt perfectly relaxed now. The kept up their idle conversation speaking of anything they could think of: homework, music, computers, the crazy stunt Odd tried in class today and so on. They were only broken up by the waiter bringing them their orders. Aelita took a sip of her soup, blowing over it to cool it down a little. She was a little surprised at how good it was compared to the constant cafeteria food at Kadic.

"How's it taste?" Jeremy asked.

"Good, much better than the food at school," she replied. "You must come here pretty often, if you can order before seeing the menu."

"Yeah, on the nights you went off to DJ, I would come here just to get away from the school." Jeremy then pulled out his cell phone to check the time. He put it away and waited for Aelita to finish her spoon full. "So I was thinking that if we hurry up here that we might go see a movie after this, how does that sound?"

"It sounds good Jeremy let's hurry up so we don't miss anything.

* * *

Jeremy and Aelita finished up their meals, but time was on now. They just needed to make it to the theater. Jeremy quickly paid for their meals and they were out the door. The two men from across the room noticed the pair as they left.

"Should we go now?" one of them asked.

"No we'll wait for later when we have more cover, just enjoy your coffee."

"Fine," the other man replied as he took another sip.

His acquaintance just kept reading his news paper. He came to the local page where he noticed some local movie times. There were a couple of action movies, a comedy and a new chick flick out this weekend. _'Must be where those kids are going,' _he thought as he read through the list.

"What are you reading?" asked the other man.

"Some movie times," he replied, not interested in the conversation.

"Can we go see one? Just sitting here is so boring."

"No," he answered strictly. He wasn't in the mood for this. "If you want we can leave, but we're not going to a damn movie."

"Deal, I'm sick of this coffee anyways."

The man with the newspaper shook his head and let out a sigh. The guy next to him could be real irritable. He waved their waiter over so he could pay and they could leave.

* * *

The two men sat in a black Sedan. Their assignment, acquire a particular pink haired girl. Why you ask? They didn't know. Details like that are always on a need -to- know basis, and they didn't need to know.

"You know they probably won't show, we should've gotten her earlier," the man in the passenger side said to the other. "Also, why can't we ever stop for food, I'm starving."

"We were just at a café earlier," the man sighed. He mumbled something under his breath before he addressed his partner. "You rookies are all the same... all you do is complain," he said, his voice riddled with annoyance. "Just shut the hell up and wait!"

After another ten minutes, their target finally came into view. The men got out of their car, and began to slowly walk down the sidewalk, making sure to keep their distance.

"You ready for this Rookie?" the older man asked, pulling out a small pistol from his coat and clicking off the safety. The younger man quickly followed suit as they continued to stalk their target.

* * *

"That was wonderful Jeremy, thanks so much for the dinner and movie. Everything was great." Aelita said, as the continued to walk down the street.

"Jeremy," Aelita said after a little while.

"Huh?" Jeremy asked.

"I just want to thank you…for everything."

Jeremy scratched the back of his neck nervously. He blushed a little bit, but responded all the same, "It's no problem at all Aelita."

"No Jeremy, I want to thank you for really everything, getting me out of the super computer, helping me recover my memories, my cell phone, every bit of it."

"Like I said Aelita, no problem," he replied, now he was really starting to turn red.

"No Jeremy, it is big. Thank you." she said as got on her toes to give Jeremy a peck on the cheek.

"You're welcome." He said, looking almost like a tomato now. "Well we better get back to school soon, it's getting dark."

"If we take the ally up there on the left, we should make it back before it gets too late." she offered as they continued to walk down the sidewalk.

Jeremy just happened to look behind them, before crossing the road and saw to men in, what looked to him, like suits and they were gaining ground on them.

"What's the matter Jeremy?" Aelita asked, seeing the scared look on his face.

"Those two men behind us, I don't know why but I have a feeling that I've seen them before. I think they're following us," he said, in a hushed tone.

"What? Why? What should we do, Jeremy?"

"Run."

* * *

"We've been spotted!" the older man stated.

"I've got'em!" the rookie said. He quickly brandished his pistol and took a shot that was careless and poorly aimed.

"What are you doing!" the older man yelled. Forcing the rookie to put is gun away. "We were instructed to capture the girl not kill her!" he continued angrily.

"What? They're escaping!" the younger man yelled back.

"Hey what was that noise?" A pedestrian yelled from a couple blocks down.

"We're pulling out now before we're discovered. You've done it now rookie!" the two men quickly fled back to their car and sped off.

"JEREMY!" Aelita screamed as he doubled over on the ground. The shot had missed its intended target, but managed to hit Jeremy in the right side of his chest. Blood was pouring from the open wound. Aelita screamed for help while putting pressure on the hole in his chest.

A few people that had seen the attack simultaneously called for an ambulance, but it didn't come very quickly, an entire eight minutes had passed before it could finally find the scene. The ambulance screeched to a halt, and two paramedics jumped out and began working on Jeremy.

Jeremy was quickly loosing blood. It was starting to cover the sidewalk and Aelita's hands were covered in the red sticky substance. Jeremy started going in and out of consciousness which caused the paramedics to start rushing.

"Shit, it doesn't look like he's going to make it."

"Hurry up we need to get him the E.R. now."

The two men started lifting him into the ambulance. "Excuse me miss, are you with this boy?" one of them asked. Aelita nodded her head 'yes'. "Get in the ambulance please. We're going to need to ask you some questions."

She quickly got in the back and the ambulance took off.

Jeremy looked up to see Aelita crying over him. He moved his hand over shakily to her face and wiped away a tear from her eyes. The last think he heard was her yelling his name before he lost consciousness for the final time and his heart stopped.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I would like to thank **Lord Mephisto **who has decided to join me by becoming a co-author of this story. He's been a great help so far and I hope with his continued help this story will really evolve.

I enjoy constructive criticism so if you see anything wrong with this chapter please let me know. Reader input is also appreciated. Like right now I'm not sure who to pair with Odd, so drop something in a review if you feel up to it.

That's about it, I've already said I don't own Code Lyoko, and I don't really think I'm going to need to again.


End file.
